TRANSFER TO BANGKOK
In 1901, Boon Itt was given a six-months leave of absence for recuperation. He had planned to spend his furlough in Japan; but yielding to family interests he got no farther than his old home in Bangkok. Just before returning to his field, in January, 1902, the Bangkok Christian community presented an earnest petition to have Mr. Boon Itt remain in Bangkok and take charge of a new work which it was proposed to open.
The demand for his services came about as a culmination of circumstances. The work at Sumray had become too large for the plot of land laid out nearly forty years before. A new compound had been procured in the city proper, and the mission Press had already been moved thither. A campus for a boys’ high school had also been secured in that locality and buildings were soon to be erected. On the part of a few there was a desire to establish a church near the school as a center for work among the students. This led to a movement among the Siamese Christians to have this church erected by the Siamese for the Siamese to the honour of Christ. A Christian nobleman of wealth and influence offered to give the major part of the cost, and the remainder was to be raised by the native Christians. This nobleman was Phra Montri, now Phya Sarasin. As he had a high admiration for Boon Itt and wished his help and leadership in the project, a conference was called at which it was unanimously decided to undertake the enterprise and to ask to have Boon Itt transferred from Pitsanuloke to take charge of the work; and a committee consisting of Phra Montri, Kru Yuan, pastor of the First Church of Bangkok, and Boon Itt was appointed to secure a lot near the proposed high school and to plan for the new structure.
Concerning this project and the peculiar fitness of Boon Itt for it, Dr. Arthur J. Brown, Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, who at that time was making a visit to the Siam mission, gave a very vivid survey in his report to the Board. After describing the respective locations of the three churches in the capital city and the circumstantial limitation of their reach, he says:
“Thus there is neither missionary nor church in Bangkok for the bulk of the population, for the intelligent, well-to-do classes who are becoming eagerly interested in foreign ideas, and for the thousands of bright young men who flock to the metropolis in Siam, as they do in England and America. In that main part of the city there are scores of young men and women who were educated at our boarding schools. Many of them are Christians. I met a big room full of them at a reception which they very kindly gave in my honour. They were as fine a looking company of young people as I have met anywhere on this tour. Properly led they might be a power for Christ.
“But there is absolutely no place in all Bangkok where they can attend church unless they divide up by sexes and travel several miles in a boat to Sumray and Wang Lang. This some of them do, but their parents and friends do not. Every year our schools are sending out more of these young people, but we are not following them up, and they are left to drift.... For this great work a man and a church are needed at once. No other need in Siam is more urgent. The man should be able to speak the Siamese like a native. He should be conversant with the intricacies of Siamese customs and etiquette; and so understand the native mind that he can enter into sympathy with it and be able to mould it for God.
“There is one man in Siam who meets all these conditions. I believe that he has ‘come into the kingdom for such a time as this.’ That man is Rev. Boon Boon Itt ... one of the most remarkable men I have met in Asia. His station has been Pitsanuloke, where he has done a fine work in building up next to the largest boys’ boarding school in the mission. Another man can do the work at Pitsanuloke equally well, but no other man in Siam or out of it can reach the young men in Bangkok as he can. As the head of his ‘clan’ whose family home is in Bangkok, he is widely and favourably known in the capital. Young men like him and resort to him for advice whenever he visits the city.... We can use this man to better advantage for the cause of Christ. So I proposed to the missionaries that Mr. Boon Itt be transferred to Bangkok, and the proposal was unanimously and enthusiastically agreed to.”
So it came about that Boon Itt was unexpectedly but with great reluctance persuaded to accept the call to Bangkok. In a letter to a friend in America he wrote:
“Now there comes a call for me to come down to Bangkok and take up the work here with young men and for young men. This now seems to be my work. I am drawn to it now. I was not before; I looked at it from a sheer sense of duty. I want to put my best work in down here, for it is extremely important to build up homes if purity is ever to be indigenous. When I went up to Pitsanuloke I was in doubt about the school work, so I said to the Lord if He wanted me to start a school there, would He give the money wherewith to build it. He owns all the riches of the world and people’s hearts are in his hands; so I asked Him to influence the people there to give the money and the materials—and He did, and the school has been built.
“Well, I learned one other lesson along with that, viz: that had I asked the Father to give me money for the work in His own way I would have been spared much unnecessary toil. I am certain that the Lord will give me the money to carry on this new work out here. My plan in general is to hire a building and start a reading room, play room, prayer meeting room, where we can have classes for Bible studies.”
As the possibilities unfolded themselves to his mind it was not solely the undertaking to build up a congregation that engaged his interests. He sketched plans for work in connection with the church which would make it a center of social activities for the cultivation of Christian ideals among the young men; and it was this phase of the work which appealed to him. He studied the needs both temporal and spiritual. Through his influence the young men organised an institution known as the Christian United Bank of Siam; this was the first banking house founded by the Siamese. It was organised after the manner of the savings banks and proved to be very helpful to the Christian community of Bangkok. He also persuaded a small group of Christian Siamese to organise a Steam Rice Milling Company on a Christian basis, no work to be done on the Sabbath and a fixed portion of the income to be devoted to Christian work.
Although Boon Itt had made himself felt among the native Christians during the few years he had spent in Bangkok directly after return to Siam, he now came to be recognised and accepted as the leader of the Siamese Christian Church. He did not aim to be a leader; his intention was just to put himself behind the work and help wherever he could. But this very helpfulness caused the people to look up to him with profound respect. They had appreciation of his understanding of their needs, of his sympathy with their aspirations, and of his ability to look at things from their personal point of view. In a few months his house had become the headquarters for Siamese Christians on the east side of the river, and little gatherings of friends were of frequent occurrence. This gave him a personal influence that he alone failed to perceive.
But scarcely had Boon Itt laid his hands to this great task when within a year his labours came to a sudden end. He fell a victim to cholera. After telling of the sudden attack of the disease, Dr. Eakin recounts the most impressive closing scenes:
“We were with him until late in Friday night, and left to return to the High School, telling them to call us if there should be any change. The weather had been hot and dry. No rain had fallen for about two months. All animate nature seemed to be suffering and longing for relief from the drought.
“About midnight we were called. As we went to the house, we noticed that there was a change coming in the weather. The wind was rising in fitful gusts, and dark clouds were scudding across the sky.
“We found that he had passed away without returning to consciousness. Soon after we entered the house, the monsoon broke in torrents of rain. The house shook under the fierce attacks of the raging tempest.... The bereaved wife calmly gathered the friends together in the little sitting room, passed around the hymn books among them and asked them all to sing. Through the long hours of that terrible storm, they sang those hymns of Christian faith and hope and comfort. In the interval between these songs of the night, they talked of the future. One expressed concern about the finishing of the new church. (A part of his ebbing strength Boon had spent in explaining the details of the drawings he had made for the roof of the church.) It would be difficult to find a contractor who would be willing to take up the work that had fallen from a dead hand, owing to a superstition that the building would be haunted. Then Kru Thien Pow, head teacher in the Boys’ High School and a most devoted friend of the fallen chief, broke down and wept aloud: ‘I am not thinking of the new church,’ he said, ‘some one will be found to complete that work. I am thinking of the Kingdom of Christ in Siam. Who will take the vacant place in this service?’”
The death of Boon Itt occurred May 8, 1903. Besides his widow, he left three children, Samuel Buntoon, Eliza Brante and Phreida.